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A political action committee formed to help elect Democrats to the House says it will no longer accept contributions from people associated with the company Backpage, an advertising business that has been under fire for allegations that it enabled prostitution and sex trafficking.

In October, Backpage founder James Larkin donated $10,000 to the House Majority PAC, and to several Democratic efforts in Arizona and Colorado, according to the elections clearinghouse website opensecrets.org.

On Tuesday, the Washington Post published a new expos revealing more evidence that a contractor for Backpage was "aggressively soliciting and creating sex-related ads, despite Backpage's repeated insistence that it had no role in the content of ads posted on its site."

A statement from an official with the Democratic House Majority PAC seemed to imply that they weren't able to return the donations, but said it would no longer take money from the company.

"The contribution from James Larkin was received and spent during the 2016 election cycle," said Charlie Kelly, Executive Director of House Majority PAC, in an email to the Washington Examiner. "The allegations against Larkin are reprehensible, and HMP will not accept any future contributions from Larkin or his associates at Backpage.com."

The House Majority PAC has been an instrument for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to try to increase the Democrats' numbers in the lower chamber of Congress. The political action committee recently spent about $700,000 in the recent special election in Georgia, in which Democrats hoped to show they were gaining momentum against the Trump administration by plucking off a safe Republican seat. The efforts didn't pay off however, as the GOP kept the seat.

An investigation into the company by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was released earlier this year, finding that, "Backpage has maintained a practice of altering ads before publication by deleting words, phrases, and images indicative of criminality, including child sex trafficking."

This year, Rep. Krysten Sinema, D-Ariz., distanced her 2016 campaigns from donations received from Backpage founders by making an equal donation to a Phoenix group that works for victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

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Democrat PAC to stop taking money from company accused of enabling sex trafficking - Washington Examiner

Matthew Daly, Associated Press

Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP

Representative-elect Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., before a ceremonial swearing-in on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 11, 2017.

Representative-elect Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., before a ceremonial swearing-in on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 11, 2017.

Democrat Jimmy Gomez sworn in to House seat from California

WASHINGTON (AP) Democrat Jimmy Gomez was sworn in as the newest member of Congress on Tuesday, replacing former Rep. Xavier Becerra, now California's attorney general.

Gomez, a former state legislator from Los Angeles, was elected June 6, but his swearing-in was delayed amid hopes by California Democrats that he could help win a measure to extend the state's cap-and-trade program to address climate change.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., criticized Gomez for weeks for not assuming his seat in Congress earlier. In a speech on the House floor, Gomez jokingly thanked McCarthy "for all the attention he's given me," drawing knowing laughter from lawmakers in both parties.

McCarthy smiled and waved to his newest colleague. With Gomez seated, the House now has 240 Republicans and 194 Democrats, with one vacancy.

Gomez, 42, said he will focus on protecting the rights of immigrants, expanding access to health care and lowering debt for college students issues he said were important to his constituents and extremely personal.

His parents and four siblings are immigrants from Mexico, and Gomez often speaks of their struggles in their adopted country.

He grew up in Riverside, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, and went on to earn a master's degree from Harvard University. When he was young, he spent a week in the hospital with pneumonia, an experience he said almost bankrupted his family.

"I believe young people from working families should have access to debt-free education because I know from my own experience that a high-school degree is not always enough, and a higher education can change a life," Gomez said in his first floor speech.

The former union organizer emerged as the establishment pick in his race against fellow Democrat Robert Lee Ahn in the 34th Congressional District, winning endorsements from Gov. Jerry Brown and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

A liberal, Gomez calls himself a member of the "resistance" to President Donald Trump and said he would push for federal polices to combat global warming. Trump has called climate change a hoax and withdrew the U.S. from a global climate agreement signed in Paris by nearly 200 nations.

"I believe everyone deserves access to clean air and water, and that climate change has exacerbated this challenge," Gomez said.

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Democrat Jimmy Gomez sworn in to House seat from California - SFGate

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin smiled merrily when he saw the reporters approaching him. It was Tuesday, the day of Donald Trump Jr.s kamikaze tweetstorm, and a deeply enjoyable day to be a Democrat in the hallways of the U.S. Capitol.

If I were in a similar situation and that request was made, the Maryland Democrat said, I would have called law enforcement. And then a flood of additional reporters swept over him, and he gamely accommodated this media mosh pit, taking on the next question, and the next, and the next.

Nationwide, the rattled American psyche tried to soothe its Twitter jitters, and meanwhile the halls of Capitol Hill were split into two neat camps: Democrats who had oodles of time to talk about the tweets in question, and GOP lawmakers who had not even heard of the tweets in question, and who is Donald Trump Jr., and what is a Twitter anyway?

I really havent seen it, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) demurred, as he fled a storming flock of journalists, all of whom had time to see the tweets, discuss the tweets, get in cabs and descend upon the Hill to bring up the tweets with senators.

I havent seen it yet, no comment, said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) as he waited for the elevator to liberate him from the media pack.

Republican senators race-walked with haunted eyes while Democrats struggled to keep the pie-eating grins off their faces on this day when the presidents son, in a frankly impressive display of self-immolation, cast aside months of protestations that hed never had contact with Russians by posting an email chain with the literal subject line, Russia Clinton private and confidential.

In the emails, Trump Jr. made plans for a meeting with what his contact described in printed words as a Russian government attorney to discuss information his contact promised would incriminate Hillary. Trump Jr.s response: How about 3 at our offices?

In quick succession, two senators hopped off the trams that run beneath the Capitol.

I havent even looked at it, said the first, Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) as reporters staggered after him up the stairs.

Lets try the other:

Senator Schatz?

Its Schahtz. The Democratic senior senator from Hawaii, seemingly gratified just to be recognized, patiently corrected our pronunciation.

What do you think about the tweets, Sen. Brian Schahtz?

It becomes, now, impossible to have a charitable explanation of whats going on thats over, he said. And anybody who tries to spin this as anything other than exactly what it looks like is going to lose all of their credibility.

Soooo, what does it look like?

His mouth broke into a grin that spread across his face in crinkles so audible they became crackles. He grinned for four seconds without speaking. He tried to stop grinning long enough to answer:

It looks like laws were violated.

Another tram arrived:

It seems to be all coming out now, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md). When you get an email essentially saying the Russian government tried to help elect your dad, it should be shocking to everybody in the country. AND THEN HE TOOK THE MEETING?!

What is happening. What is happening?

Theory: Donald Trump Jr. is a bonehead.

Theory: Donald Trump Jr. is just playing dumb.

Theory: Donald Trump thinks he is playing dumb but is actually a bonehead.

Also, is this a big deal? It seems like it is, but after a while its hard to tell. Everyone kept saying the Russia investigation was all smoke and no fire, but maybe at a certain point you realize youre already living in the tar-pit flames of hell?

We are reminded of Winston Churchill: This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, a sign that reality has become untethered from itself and we have fallen into a parallel dimension where there is no beginning or end.

I just heard about it, said Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.V.). I just couldnt believe it. It gets more and more bizarre every day.

Up the stairs from Manchin, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) gravely told reporters that the context of the meeting was pretty clear, while behind her, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) was shuffling past with his hands clamped on the shoulders of two small children walking in front of him. Im just trying to have lunch with my daughters, he explained.

Elsewhere, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) had no daughters to lunch with, and so he kept his hand clamped firmly to his cellphone as he strode past, talking into it loudly in a way that pretty much discouraged anyone from interrupting: Yeah, I think thats a good idea, he said to the person on the other end of the line. (We are working on the assumption there was a person on the other end of the line.)

Late in the morning, Pauls fellow Kentuckian, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, held a news conference at which he repeated, Theyll get to the bottom of whatever happened, with Pavlovian dedication to all questions related to possible Trump campaign interactions with Russia.

The investigation in the Senate is being handled by the intelligence committee and Im sure theyll get to the bottom of whatever happened, he said.

Had his trust of the president changed at all? a reporter asked.

Theyll get to the bottom of whatever may have happened.

There is no bottom. We know that now. There are Democrats making hay, and there are Republicans ducking their heads. But there is never, ever any bottom.

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Donald Trump Jr. and the kamikaze tweetstorm that set Washington on fire - Washington Post

Updated on July 11 at 2:54 p.m. ET

Senate Republican leaders have a new plan to pass the health-care bill their members scuttled late last month: Theyll unveil a revised bill this Thursday, receive an updated analysis from the Congressional Budget Office on Monday, and then rush the proposal across the floor before its critics have a chance to defeat it.

Were going to do health care next week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared on Tuesday after briefing senators on proposed changes to his original proposal.

This new timeline is the same as the old one. Its a rinse-and-repeat version of McConnells original hurry-up scheme, which collapsed rather easily amid an onslaught of jabs and hooks from more than one-fifth of the Republican senators whose support was necessary to pass the bill. That failure set back the entire Senate agenda, and in a rare interruption of a sancrosanct congressional tradition, McConnell announced that he was delaying the chambers August recess by two weeks to finish up health carewin or loseand address other issues like a national defense bill, the debt ceiling, and stalled presidential nominations.

On health care, having a plan is not the same as having the votes, and McConnell remains far short of his magic number, which is 50 plus a tie-breaking nod from Vice President Mike Pence. A conservative bloc on the right is demanding that the Senate bill allow insurers the flexibility to sell plans that dont comply with the Affordable Care Act, while more moderate Republicans are insisting on more funding for insurance subsidies, the opioid epidemic, rural hospitals, and the restoration of some of the proposals deep cuts to Medicaid. Senators were also dismayed by the CBOs projection that 22 million more people could be uninsured as a result of the plan. McConnell can afford to lose just two votes, and so far hes down at least 10.

What the Republican Health-Care Holdouts Want

All of this puts the core GOP promise to repeal and replace former President Barack Obamas signature law at its most precarious point since March, when House Republican leaders briefly abandoned the effort amid dissension in their ranks. Opposition to McConnells not-quite-repeal bill from the two poles of the Senate Republican conferenceSusan Collins of Maine in the center, Rand Paul of Kentucky on the rightappears to be hardening. President Trump is venting his frustration on Twitter, and McConnell is raising the possibility of having to work with Democrats to fix Obamacare if Republicans fail to rip it apart on their own. Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has seen his share of legislative drama, predicted the bill was probably going to be dead.

Yet just as declarations of the House bills demise proved premature in March, so too might the morbid prognoses about the Senate version seem silly in retrospect. You will hear that it is dead. Then you will hear it is back on track. Then you will hear it is on life support, House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a speech last month. He was talking about the GOPs push for tax reform, but he could have been referring to any major legislative lift. It was true of the ACA seven years ago, and it might be true of health care now.

For all of the GOP critics of McConnells initial proposal, none have ruled out supporting a revised versionnot even Collins or Paul. Complaining about a plan is another way of asserting leverage to win concessions, and senators like Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, for example, have already secured the promise of additional money to combat opioid addiction in their states. More side deals are likely on their way.

The keys to watch over the next few days are how the hold-out senators react both to the revised proposal and a new CBO score that will follow. Will Senator Ted Cruz win support for his freedom option amendment to allow insurers to offer bare-bones plans as long as they also sell more robust policies that comply with Obamacare regulations, most crucially the requirement that people with preexisting conditions cant be forced to pay more? Or will it drive more senators away?

The sign that the bill is dead or alive will come when critics like Collins, Murkowski, Capito, or Dean Heller of Nevada either continue pushing for more changes to its current structure or pull off McConnells Republican-only approach altogether. As the proposal has languished, several GOP senators have pushed for bipartisan talks and criticized party leaders for excluding Democrats from the beginning. Collins has gone the furthest on that front and said a complete overhaul of McConnells proposal is needed to win her support.

But even she has resisted the blanket statement that could kill the Senate GOP bill once and for allnot merely the suggestion of bipartisanship, but a demand for it. If Collins and at least two other Republicans declared they would not support a one-party approach to health-care and made at least some Democratic backing the requirement for their vote, it would be the death knell for McConnells bill and the path Republicans have pursued for seven years. Unless and until that happens, the GOP-only health-care bill will have at least a breath left.

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How to Know If the Republican Health-Care Bill Is Dead - The Atlantic

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said, Minor changes and tweaks will not be sufficient to win my support for the bill.

Changes are coming, but none that are likely to radically alter the estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that 22 million fewer people would have health insurance in 2026 under the Senate health care bill than under the Affordable Care Act. A new estimate is expected from the budget office early next week.

The revised bill is expected to include a $45 billion fund to help combat the opioid epidemic, as well as a provision allowing consumers to use health savings accounts to pay for premiums.

Senate Republicans are also likely to keep a pair of taxes imposed by the Affordable Care Act on people with high incomes. The law increased the payroll tax rate for many high-income taxpayers and imposed a tax on their investment income. Both taxes would be eliminated by the repeal bill passed by the House in May and by the original version of Mr. McConnells bill.

Keeping those taxes would undercut a major argument against the bill by Democrats, who have branded it as a tax cut for the rich disguised as a health bill.

But the largest changes to the health care system are likely to remain in the bill. About two-thirds of the increase in the projected number of uninsured Americans would result from deep cuts in expected Medicaid spending, the budget office said. The bill would impose caps on Medicaid spending and would roll back the expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act.

The Senate measure will be considered under special procedures that limit debate to 20 hours, preclude a Democratic filibuster and allow passage with a simple majority vote. It is unclear whether Mr. McConnell would start the debate next week if he lacks firm commitments from enough senators to ensure passage.

Delaying the vote again might not help.

Anybody who thinks that its going to get easier by waiting, said Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, thats a testament to the power of human denial as far as Im concerned.

At least 10 Republican senators, led by David Perdue of Georgia, had urged the majority leader to work into the month of August, so lawmakers could show some results to their constituents.

Mr. McConnell said delaying the recess would provide time to work on other matters after the Senate deals with health care next week. But the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, suggested a different motivation for Mr. McConnells announcement.

Theyre struggling with health care, Mr. Schumer said. They dont want to go home and face their constituents.

The problem is not the timing, he added. Its the substance.

Senate Republicans are still skirmishing over a proposal by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, that would allow insurers to sell stripped-down insurance policies if they also offered at least one plan that complied with federal insurance standards under the Affordable Care Act. Under this proposal, insurers could, for example, omit coverage of certain services like maternity care or mental health care.

Mr. Cruz says his proposal would give consumers new, lower-priced insurance options. On Tuesday, he called it the necessary ingredient to getting the votes to repeal the health law.

I believe we can get there, he said. It remains challenging. More work remains to be done. But there is a path forward, and that path revolves around lowering premiums.

But Mr. Cruzs proposal underscored the problem that Mr. McConnell faces: Making a change to please some Republican senators could alienate others. With Democrats united in opposition, he can afford only two Republican no votes.

Ms. Collins, a former state insurance regulator in Maine who is already dissatisfied with the Senate bill, warned about the potential negative consequences of the Cruz amendment. Critics of his proposal say it would create two insurance markets: an inexpensive one for the young and healthy, and another, far more expensive one for sick and older Americans that could price those with pre-existing medical conditions out of the market.

If it is as described, Ms. Collins said, I believe it would further destabilize the individual markets, undermine the protections for people with pre-existing conditions and cause premiums to increase for people with pre-existing conditions.

I certainly dont think that that is the answer, she added.

Also on Tuesday, the Trump administration approved a waiver sought by the state of Alaska for an innovative program to help stabilize the individual insurance market.

The state, which has exceptionally high health care costs and insurance premiums, has established a reinsurance program to help pay claims for consumers with certain very high-cost medical conditions like metastatic cancer, H.I.V. and AIDS.

The House and Senate bills would provide tens of billions of dollars for such programs, intended to help keep premiums down and encourage more insurers to participate in the market.

Emily Cochrane and Emmarie Huetteman contributed reporting.

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GOP Senators Vow to Unveil Health Bill Thursday, Despite Deep Divisions - New York Times